Dean Danos, the Alamo Area Council of Governments' executive director, listens as the AACOG's executive committee recommends to the full board in a unanimous vote to terminate Danos and Deputy Director Mike Quinn (inset), who have been on paid administrative leave since last month.

Photo: Helen L. Montoya / San Antonio Express-News

Dean Danos, the Alamo Area Council of Governments' executive...

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Adam Poncio, who represents Alamo Area Council of Governments Deputy Director Mike Quinn speaks about the AACOG executive committee recommendation to terminate Quinn and Executive Director Dean Danos on Monday March 24, 2014.

Photo: SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Adam Poncio, who represents Alamo Area Council of Governments...

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Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff speaks with Alamo Area Council of Governments Executive Director Dean Danos after the AACOG executive committee voted to terminate Danos and Deputy Director Mike Quinn who have been on paid administrative leave since last month, when questions arose about their relationship with a tenant who never paid rent.

SAN ANTONIO — The Alamo Area Council of Governments executive committee on Monday recommended that the body's full board terminate two top executives who are facing criminal and internal probes.

Committee members voted unanimously to recommend termination of executive director Dean Danos, and suggested that the action is effective immediately upon approval Wednesday.

In another unanimous vote, members recommended that three people serving as interim executive directors terminate deputy executive director Mike Quinn, also effective upon full-board approval.

Early this year, AACOG's 30-member board and staff began to question the relationship between Danos, Quinn and Jackqueline Cooper, whose company, TriHM Foundation LLC, leased space in AACOG's office building but never paid rent.

The company described itself as one that helps communities secure funding, and had pledged to help AACOG win some $168 million in grants, but that cash never materialized, either.

Danos and Quinn were placed on administrative leave with pay on Feb. 26, and the AACOG board hired Peden Investigations to conduct an internal probe while the Texas Rangers look into whether a criminal investigation is needed.

A letter released to the Express-News states the FBI also is looking into Cooper and TriHM.

“The investigations are still going on and they have not been completed,” Danos said. “We'll have to wait and see what the board does Wednesday.”

Quinn hired attorney Adam Poncio, who said he's trying to work out a deal with AACOG that would allow Quinn to resign.

“We had wished that they would wait to make a recommendation after the investigation is complete, because they'll find that there wasn't any wrongdoing,” Poncio said.

AACOG Chairman Kevin Wolff, a Bexar County commissioner, said action had to be taken on the executives' employment status because of a “number of policy and procedure violations.”

The board was never asked to approve TriHM's lease for space, nor was it informed that the tenant never paid rent. The unpaid bill now totals about $127,000, officials said.

According to records obtained by the Express-News, Danos was warned by AACOG's attorneys about Cooper's business past — Cooper had 14 civil judgments lodged against her, pleaded bankruptcy once, lost her home health care license after not paying employees and vendors, and has several criminal convictions — but still signed the lease.

The AACOG board never received the vetting documents, Wolff said, and over the past two years, no action items regarding TriHM were on the AACOG board's agenda.

“There were a number of actions, I believe, that were taken obviously without board approval or notification that, quite frankly, should have come before the board,” he said. “It wasn't until here recently that some of those have raised their heads.”

Poncio said Danos and Quinn believed that the money would come from Cooper.

“There wasn't any misconduct — she just wasn't living up to her obligations,” he said.